The Juice Wasn’t Worth the Squeeze—Inside The Lemonheads Meltdown (Mrs. Robinson)

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The Juice Wasn’t Worth the Squeeze—Inside The Lemonheads Meltdown (Mrs. Robinson)

Key Points

The Lemonheads were formed in 1986 by three Boston teenagers: Evan Dando, Ben Dy, and Jesse Perez from Commonwealth School
Their breakthrough album "It's a Shame about Ray" (1992) became a masterpiece of '90s alternative rock, clocking in at just under 30 minutes
The band's cover of "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel became a massive hit, pushing the album to gold status and making them household names
Evan Dando was named one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people and became the alt-rock heartthrob of the era
The band's sound evolved from raw punk rock to melodic pop, mixing genres like country and jangle pop
Dando's trip to Australia completely changed the band's direction, where he collaborated with Tom Morgan and Nick Dalton
Their cover of "Into Your Arms" went to number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for 9 weeks
Dando developed serious drug problems, including crack cocaine addiction, which severely impacted his performance and behavior
The band went on indefinite hiatus in 1997 after their final show at the Reading Festival
Dando released his first solo album "Baby on Board" in 2003, showing more mature and introspective songwriting
The Lemonheads reformed in 2005 with punk rock legends Carl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson from the Descendants
Their 2006 self-titled comeback album was their first batch of new songs in a decade
The band has continued touring and recording, with recent shows featuring full performances of classic albums
Dando has been open about his path to sobriety and recovery from addiction in recent years
He has spent significant time in Brazil, which has deeply influenced his creative work
A new album of original Lemonheads songs is currently in the works
Dando is set to release his long-awaited memoir telling his side of the story
The band's legacy represents both the dizzying highs of '90s alternative fame and the challenges of maintaining success under intense pressure

Full Transcript

Language: en
In the early 1990s, right at the peak of
the alternative rock explosion, one band
really seemed to have it all. They had
the sound, a perfect sundrrench mix of
punk energy and impossibly catchy pop
hooks. They had the critics on their
side with writers falling over
themselves to praise their effortless
cool. And they had the face, Evan Dando,
a frontman so charismatic and
good-looking that People magazine named
him one of the 50 most beautiful people
in the world. The Lemon Heads were the
darlings of the era, sitting on the side
of superstardom with a string of beloved
albums and hit songs. But almost as fast
as they rose, the mainstream buzz died
down. The band went quiet and all that
momentum just well, it vanished. For
years, fans who wore out their cassette
tapes of It's a Shame about Ray were
left with one question. So, whatever
really happened to the Lemon Heads?
Well, because you guys requested it,
we're going to explore in today's story.
The Lemonad's history doesn't start
under the sunny skies of California, but
in the colder, grittier music scene of
Boston. Back in 1986, three ambitious
teenagers from Commonwealth School, Evan
Dando, Ben Dy, and Jesse Perez, decided
to start a band. Dando, who was really
the creative mastermind behind the
group, was born to a fashion model and a
real estate attorney father. Dando was
raised on Mottown, Neil Young, and
Steelely Dan. His sister later turned
him on to Black Sabbath as well. The
trio first called themselves the Welps,
but quickly switched to a name inspired
by a popular candy, a name that would
turn out to be weirdly prophetic. The
Lemon Heads, as Dando later put it, were
sweet on the inside and sour on the
outside, which was the perfect metaphor
for the music they were about to make.
They modeled their early sound after the
replacements, Black Flag always comes up
in interviews, as well as Hooker Doo.
While still using the moniker, the
Welps, in 1986, a demo tape of theirs
got passed to a guy named Curtis
Cassella, a head of local label Tang
Records. Cassella told Spin it sounded
so similar at first, exactly like the
replacements. Well, it turned out
Cassella was listening to the wrong side
of the tape. It actually was the
replacements he heard, but he soon
flipped the tape and he was impressed by
the intense energy of the band's raw,
passionate postpunk rock. Cassella's
outfit issued the AP Laughing All the
Way to the Cleaners under their new
moniker, Lemon Heads. The EP got some
play on underground radio stations, and
the coming months saw the band play
their first live shows, including with
local Boston heroes Pixies.
It was in 1987 Tang Records issued the
group's debut record, Hate Your Friends,
which included a cover of Rabbit by
Australia's Proud Scum. And cover tunes,
as you'll soon learn, became a common
theme in the Lemon Heads history in
addition to their fascination with
Australia.
Their first two releases on Tang Records
were Raw, Fast, and Loud. The band soon
underwent a lineup change with a drummer
leaving and John Strum coming in. Now,
lineup changes became another common
theme for the group. Hate your friends
along with 1988's creator and 1989's
Lick became college rock staples and
earned the Lemon Heads a loyal
underground following. Their label head
Cassella told Spin that after 1988's
creator, a lot of weird started to
happen. Cole leaders Dando and De
stopped getting along and almost broke
up. But the band had signed a three-
album deal with Tang Records, and the
label threatened to put out a third
album on its own, which consisted of
rarities and outtakes. So, Dando and De
reluctantly agreed to write a third
record. Adding to the tension was that
the pair's label pressured them to
record a cover of Suzanne Vega's track,
Luca, which the band had actually played
live as a joke.
The song surprisingly became an indie
hit and MTV gave it some play throwing
more fuel in the fire of an internal
power struggle.
It was shortly after the album was done
that Dando quit the group. De brought in
his brother and Dando meanwhile joined
Juliana Hatfield's group Blake Babies.
It was only once Luca became a hit that
the band was offered the chance to tour
Europe that Dando rejoined the Lemon
Heads and De who was still in school and
not wanting to take a break left. Funny
enough, the success of their cover of
Luca resulted in the Lemon Heads getting
signed to major label Atlantic Records.
The Lemon Heads were now for all
practical purposes Evan Dando's band.
Dando told Louderound, "It felt cool
signing to a major label, but we
actually didn't sell any records. We
were trying to do that heavy screaming
guitar thing when we started. And then I
thought, what if we go the other way?
I'm going to go really quiet. Let's go
against the grain. That was sort of the
idea. And I realized that was my
strength. In 1990, the band issued a
three- song EP that featured a cover of
Stony's classic Different Drum.
The British magazine Enemy dubbed it the
single of the summer, while Melody Maker
gave it the single of the week
certification. With Dando in the
driver's seat, the band's sound started
changing and fast. Their first LP for
Atlantic Lovey came out in 1990, and it
was a bit of a transition. It still had
some of that punk rock bite of their
earlier work, but it was also more
melodic and eclectic, showing off
Dando's growing talent for mixing genres
like country and jangle pop into their
sound. Lovey ended up topping the
independent albums chart in the UK, and
it sold about 20,000 copies in the
States, according to the Herald Sun.
After its release, Dando's life took a
sharp turn. He took a trip to Australia
that would completely change the band's
future. Over there, he fell in love with
a lively local music scene and started
working with two Australian musicians,
Tom Morgan and Nick Dalton, who Billy
also provided the inspiration for the
Lemonhead's next album, 1992's It's a
Shame about Ray. The album title was
inspired by something Dando had read in
a city newspaper in November of 91. The
article told the story of a 15-year-old
boy named Ray who had left school in
Naira and moved to Sydney where he was
homeless and thinking about turning to
prostitution to survive. Dando called
his time in Australia One Big Valium, a
period of creative renewal powered by
new friends and experiences. The songs
he started writing with Morgan and
Dalton felt different. They were
quieter, more introspective with a kind
of laid-back sundrrench sadness to them.
Dando credited the Australian musicians
with helping him feel inspired again and
added that a shame about Ray likely
wouldn't have existed had he not taken
the trip down under. He told Louderound,
"The people I met were obsessive about
the Velvet Underground, living their
lives around those D&amp;G chords. They were
really living this rock and roll thing.
I'd never experienced that before and it
was so cool." Dando soon returned to
America with a new band and a clear
vision. He soon fired the group's
management and the band went into the
studio with producers the Raw brothers,
ready to record the album that would
change everything. They were about to
make a masterpiece of '90s alternative
rock. In June of 1992, The Lemonheads
released It's a Shame about Ray,
clocking in at just under 30 minutes.
The album was a masterclass in short,
perfect guitar pop. In a year dominated
by the loud, snarling feedback of
grunge, Ray cut through all the noise
with the breezy melodies, smart lyrics,
and Dando's warm honeyed voice. It was
the quiet against the grain approach
Dando had deliberately aimed for. He
told the Aspbury Park press about how
his writing changed on It's a shame
about Ray, admitting, "I got into
country a couple years back and now it's
starting to seep into my own stuff. It
was a change from the Lemon Heads early
material which only knew two speeds,
fast and faster." In a separate
interview with the Star Ledger, he added
how he wanted to replicate the length of
pop songs from groups like the Beatles.
And he also talked about getting into
television personalities, a British
underground pop band from the 80s.
Meanwhile, girlfriend Juliana Hatfield,
who was not a member of the Lemon Heads,
she did play bass on the record as well.
The song My Drug Buddy chronicled Dano's
time with his friend Amy, and them doing
Speed and Walking Around. The album also
featured basic love songs like Allison
Starting to Happen, while confetti deals
with Dando's parents divorce.
rather than
the album, strangely enough, closes with
Frank Mills, initially written for the
stage production of the 60s rock musical
Hair. Why, you may be asking? While Dan
would tell Louder Sound, it was sort of
my model of songwriting at the time. A
new way to look at songs with no rhymes.
It just keeps going and it breaks the
rules. It's a beautiful song. I think
doing that cover was the perfect idea.
and mom and hell.
Now, the album was a huge success with
critics and it was also a commercial
success turning the Lemon Heads from
indie darlings into real media
sensations. But his trajectory was
launched into the orbit by a surprise
marketing move to promote the 25th
anniversary VHS release of the movie The
Graduate. Both Atlantic Records and the
film's manufacturer pushed the band to
record a cover of Simon and Garfunles
Mrs. Robinson, claiming it would
introduce the movie to a younger
Now, Dando wasn't a fan of the song, but
he loved the Graduate so much that he
agreed to do it. The band knocked out
their punky, slightly sarcastic version
in just a couple of hours on tour, and
Dando was originally against putting it
on the album. By the time the group got
asked to do a cover of Mrs. Robinson,
Ray had sold about 100,000 copies. But
the label got their way, and they soon
added the cover to later pressings of
the album. That decision proved to be a
gamecher. The song became one of the
band's biggest singles, a massive
international hit that pushed the album
to go gold status and made the Lemon
Heads a household name.
Dando told the Sacramento Be, "It's our
first take." He added that it was
recorded while the group was in Berlin,
stating, "I have no particular
attachment to that song." Most
emphatically, it works well within the
context of that movie, but outside of
it, it's kind of hokey. See, I try and
choose my cover songs very carefully,
and there's no way I'd choose that one.
The group's cover peaked at number eight
on the modern rock tracks chart and it
was also a top 20 hit in Australia and
England. The funny part is that Mrs.
Robinson was recorded to celebrate the
25th anniversary home video of The
Graduate and it gave Dando, who was 25
at the time, his first big commercial
success. As for what Paul Simon and Art
Garfuncle thought, Dando stated, "Paul
Simon hated our version of that song,
but it was great because Art Garfuncle
loved it. Paul Simon is a genius as a
songwriter, but a jerk as a person. He's
not very nice. The album was a great
record already, and that sullied it.
The title track was also a hit, peeking
at number five on the modern rock tracks
chart, and it peaked at number 68 and 31
in Australia and the UK.
Actress Paulie Nunan and her car appear
on the cover of the album. The album not
only won gold in America, it also won
gold in Australia and the UK. It peaked
at number 36 in the States and number 33
and 23 in the UK and Australia.
Suddenly, Evan Dando was everywhere. His
face with its chiseled jawline and
slacker poet vibe was on the cover of
music in teen magazines all over the
world. He was the alt rock heartthrob,
the reluctant poster boy for a
generation. He was named by People
magazine as one of their top 50 most
beautiful people and was referred to as
an alterah hunk, a title that he seemed
to enjoy. In the band's early days, he
spent two months at Skidmore College, a
place where the only class he passed was
acting. Dando soon started popping up in
films, including making a cameo in the
Winona rider film Reality Bites. But
some viewed his good looks with
suspicion. One fan sprouted up around
this time called I Hate Evano. The
success proved to be huge and dizzying.
The frontman told the spokesman review
how he felt about following up their
breakthrough album Ray, stating, "I was
depressed and nervous about making the
record, and I thought I could escape it
with drugs, and it didn't work." The
sessions for their follow-up, which took
place in LA, alternated with Dando
smoking crack with some unnamed musician
pals and doing lowgrade Mexican heroin.
Things got so bad that his parents and
sister whisked him away in a limousine
and took him straight to rehab. He did
admit that he had a lot of fun in his
wild partying days, but somewhere in the
shuffle, music started to come last. The
songs, which were co-written with
Australian Tom Morgan, marked a return
to the heavier punch of earlier Lemon
Head stuff and to the band's loud live
shows. The resulting album 1993's Come
Unveil the Lemon Heads took its title
from the British group Slade. Songs like
It's About Time was inspired by Dando's
friendship with Julianne Hatfield, while
the track Big Gay Heart was inspired by
a friend of the singer who rented a
house with gay artwork.
My big gay heart.
Ex GoGo's member Belinda Carile, who
shared management with the Lemon Heads,
lent her voice on the song I'll do it
anyway, while Rick James does backing
vocals on Rick James style. Anywhere.
[Applause]
The record kept the hits coming with
songs like the incredibly catchy cover
of the Australian duo Love Positions
Into Your Arms.
It was a track that went to number one
on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks
chart for 9 weeks. It was also a
crossover hit, giving the band their
only appearance on the Hot 100 chart,
peaking at number 67. It also peaked at
number 46 and 14 in Australia as well as
the UK.
The band had another modest hit from the
record with Great Big No, which peaked
at number 15 in America.
For a brief moment, the Lemon Heads were
on top of the world. But the pressure
that came with that intense spotlight
was starting to create some serious
cracks. The non-stop cycle of fame,
touring, and media attention started to
take a heavy toll, especially on Dando,
the laid-back, carefree guy who became a
star began to fray, revealing a much
more complicated and troubled person
beneath. Dando developed a serious drug
problem, even admitting to Q magazine
that he was smoking crack cocaine, a
confession that he said he later
regretted. His drug use, which he later
said even started before the band got
famous, got much worse during this
period of intense pressure. His behavior
also got erratic. He became
unpredictable and stories started to
circulate about him showing up to
festival gigs hours late, leaving
audiences waiting and frustrated. On
stage, he could seem disoriented,
sometimes mumbling his way through songs
or just walking off midset without
saying a word. The creative spark that
had burned so brightly just a couple of
years before was being snuffed out by
the chaos of addiction. Dando later
remarked that he barely remembered 1994
at all, as his life became an endless
cycle of waiting for the next drug deal.
Couple this with him hanging out with
Kirk Cobain and Courtney Love in
addition to the members of Oasis, and he
didn't really surround himself with the
best influences. The band proceeded to
take the next few years off with Dando
telling the Calamazoo Gazette, "I needed
a break. I wasn't even sure if I was
going to return to music, but he did."
In 1996, the band released their next
record, Car Button Cloth. The album's
name came from three items that Dando
sunk in his tub during a science
experiment testing buoyancy. The record
was darker and more somber, and it
mirrored Dando's state of mind. The song
Hospital revisited his time at Silver
Hills Rehab Clinic, but the record also
had its more jangly beauty moments like
If I Could Talk, I'd tell you. That song
charted at number 15 in the States on
the Modern Rock Trucks chart.
The record got mixed reviews and failed
to recreate the commercial magic of the
ones before it. The band went on tour to
support the album. But by 1997, after a
final show at the Reading Festival, it
was over. The Lemon Heads, Once the
Brightest Stars in the Alternative Sky,
went on an indefinite hiatus. The
constant touring, the internal
pressures, and the death of a close
friend, as well as Dando's personal
battles had brought everything to a
grinding halt. The golden era was well
finished. After the 1997 hiatus, it was
time for Dando to retreat and take
stock. With the band's structure gone,
his substance abuse problems reportedly
got worse. He stepped back from the
music industry, started traveling, and
he tried to find some kind of balance
and peace. In 1998, Atlantic released
the best of the Lemon Heads compilation,
pretty much closing the book on the
band's most successful chapter. For the
next several years, Dando was mostly out
of the public spotlight, though he would
pop up for some solo acoustic shows,
playing the classic songs from his
band's past. During the time, he met and
married English model and musician
Elizabeth Moses in 2000, a relationship
that brought some stability to his
chaotic life. Eventually, the urge to
make music started to come back. He
started working on new material, and in
2003, he released his first real solo
record, Baby on Board. The album was a
shift from the punk pop of the Lemon
Heads, leaning into a more introspective
alt- vibe. It was met with great reviews
with critics praising Dando's more
mature songwriting and his gift for what
one magazine called bruised melancholy.
The record was a quiet moving statement
from an artist who had been through hell
and back and he was still able to craft
beautiful heartfelt music. It was a top
40 hit in the UK and it proved that even
after the storm of the '9s, the
songwriter at the heart of the Lemon
Heads was still there just learning to
navigate a quieter chapter in his life.
After its release, Dando finally entered
rehab to confront his long-standing
addictions. By 2005, the pull of the
Lemon Heads was too strong to resist.
Dando reformed the band with a new
lineup that excitingly included punk
rock legends Carl Alvarez and Bill
Stevenson of the Descendants. They
signed a deal to Vagrant Records and in
2006 they released a self-titled record
which was their first batch of new songs
in a decade. The album was a fantastic
return, a blast of rock energy that felt
like a worthy follow-up to their '90s
But inspiration for reforming the Lemon
Heads might surprise you. Dando told the
Birmingham News, "I always wanted to do
another Lemon Heads record. And mainly,
there's this festival in Brazil with all
these different kinds of bands playing
all these different kinds of Lemon Head
songs, and I thought since that was
happening, I thought I might as well put
a Lemon Heads record out. And also, I
found the perfect people to do it with."
This reunion wasn't a onetime thing. The
band followed it up in 2009 with a new
record, Varsian. a fun collection of
cover songs and then a decade later they
release Vartian 2 and they both show off
the band's wide range of influences that
have always been part of Dano's music.
Through it all, Dando has been the one
constant member, the beating heart of
the Lemon Heads. He has kept touring
relentlessly both with different lineups
of the band and as a solo artist playing
for dedicated crowds all over the world.
These tours often celebrate the band's
biggest records with recent shows even
featuring full performances of It's a
Shame about Ray and Come on, Phil
Lemonheads in soldout venues. In more
recent years, Dando has been incredibly
open about his past struggles and his
path to sobriety. He's talked frankly
about hitting rock bottom and the hard
work of getting clean, a journey that
has led him to a more stable life. He
has spent a significant time in Brazil,
a place that has deeply influenced him,
and the creative spark is burning
brighter than ever. The musician
revealed that a new album of original
Lemon Head songs is in the works, and
he's also set to release his
long-awaited memoir, giving his own side
of this wild journey later this year.
The story of the Lemon Heads is a
fascinating look at the dizzying highs
of '90s fame and the long wind whining
road that comes after. Evan Dando's
journey has been one of incredible
talent, very public struggles, and in
the end, perseverance. What are your
favorite memories of the Lemon Heads or
the '9s alternative scene? Let me know
in the comments section below. And if
you guys enjoyed this look back, make
sure to like, subscribe, and share this
video. And let me know in the comments
section what future topics you like to
see me cover. That brings us to the end
of today's video, guys. Thanks for
watching. We'll see you again on Rocky
Stories. stick.

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